JCPenney is the newest entrant to Bengaluru's technology landscape, joining other global retailers like Target, Tesco, Victoria's Secret and Lowe's.

The $12.6-billion US retailer is opening a technology centre here that will have 1,000 employees when fully operational in about two years. It expects to hire 450 people by the end of this year. The centre will have engineers to manage its internal IT systems, as also to develop digital, e-commerce and analytics solutions.

"We are looking at India predominantly as a talent play, and not for doing incremental stuff. We are going to replatform, redesign and do cutting-edge work... there will be global roles for people here," Michael Amend, executive vice president of omnichannel in JCPenney, told TOI in an exclusive interaction.

In his role, Amend focuses on creating a seamless experience across stores, jcp.com, marketing and all digital channels.

JCPenney has teamed up with Lalit Ahuja-backed ANSR Consulting, a GIC (global inhouse centre) strategy consultation and implementation firm, to set up operations in India. ANSR has helped bring in 21 GICs to India to date.

Consulting firm Zinnov estimates that India is host to over 1,000 R&D centres of MNCs. The sheer scale of engineering and analytics talent in India has made the country hugely attractive.